This may be naive but why can’t we use the MDA Object thesaurus rather than the BM-thesaurus?
Gill
Gill Campbell
Head of Environmental Studies (Acting)
English Heritage
Fort Cumberland
Fort Cumberland Road,
Portsmouth
P04 9LD
tel: 02392 856780
-----Original
Message-----
From: Dominique de Moulins
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 January 2005 14:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] e-conference -
conservation
I am forwarding Ian Panter's message
minus the heading because he is out of his office at meetings etc... until
Friday.
D.
Dear All,
Gill Campbell has introduced the subject of developing thesauri and
definitions relating to environmental work. I now want to turn the debate to
archaeological conservation.
In
some respects conservation is still viewed by many as a process concerned with
the long term stabilisation of artefacts in order that they can be stored or
displayed within a museum environment. This is but one aim of conservation, and
what I want to focus on is what we can term as “investigative
conservation” – that is, a process that gathers data about an
artefact (what material/s were used, how it was manufactured, possible reuses,
etc. – in effect work that compliments and augments the work of the
artefact researcher) and the overall state of preservation of the artefact. In
fact, given the requirements of PPG16 archaeology and the desire to rebury or
preserve sites in situ, then the latter aspect is of paramount importance. The
layers of corrosion that obscure most metal artefacts may be of more importance
than the artefact itself, providing hints about past and current burial
conditions, as well as data that should be considered if mitigation involves in
situ preservation. Angela Monckton has already alluded to the importance of
characterising preservation in planning control using environmental evidence
– to this I would add artefactual evidence in order to obtain a more
holistic view.
Therefore any artefact recording system needs to address a number of questions,
and in developing the current standard, we have chosen to incorporate
environmental and artefactual data in one unit, attempting to find commonality
between terms. I would be very interested to hear from colleagues whether this
approach is the right one, or whether we should be looking at separating the
two.
Material definitions are covered by the British Museum materials
thesaurus which can be found at:
www.mda.org.uk/bmmat/matintro.htm
This thesaurus encompasses more terms than we would ever need for
archaeological purposes, however, it does include broad terms such as copper
alloy and iron for example. Gill has already referred to possible
problems with the terms mineral-replaced or mineral preserved, which are terms
that we will need to incorporate into the thesaurus. Another issue is with
residues which may be found associated with pottery sherds and other artefacts.
I don’t think the current thesaurus covers this adequately and will need
further consideration.
The Midas unit “analytical technique” can easily encompass
both conservation and environmental archaeology – X-radiography is
included, and multi – elemental analysis would cover X-ray Fluorescence
analyses (routinely used by conservators to identify surface decoration). These
would be useful terms for researchers to search under.
One category that isn’t included is “stabilisation” –
i.e whether the artefact has been intentionally stabilised to ensure long term
stability. This unit would include freeze-drying, use of inhibitors for copper
alloys, application of consolidants. Therefore a separate Midas unit would
need to be developed to encompass this.
Finally I think more work will be necessary to develop an adequate system to
encompass state of preservation. – our categories don’t rest easily
with what has been proposed already. However, I would like feedback on this and
questions raised.
Ian Panter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Panter
Regional Advisor for Archaeological Science (Yorkshire)
English
Heritage
37 Tanner Row
York
YO1 6WP
Tel. 01904 601983
Mob. 07967 706869
Fax. 01904 601999
email:[log in to unmask]